Goodbye
by Laurenke1
Summary: One shot. Arwen's final goodbye as she dies. Slightly AU warning.


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the Lord of the Rings.**

**Note: This is a one shot about Arwen saying her final goodbye. This will be sad so have your tissues ready if you need them. **

The people of Gondor wept for their great king and ruler Elessar Telcontar had died. After ruling for 120 glorious years the wise king had finally consented the throne to his young son and heir, Eldarion. But now their queen had gone missing as well. The flags hung low when the people started to realize they would not be only in mourning for their king but for their queen as well. But where she had gone, few knew.

"_It seems like there was no worst pain then to say goodbye to my family but I was wrong. How could I have been so mistaken? How could I even think I knew the pain when I said the final farewell? The farewell to my beloved Aragorn." _

Arwen cared not that there was no one in the now abandoned woods of Lorien. She cared not her father had predicted this would happen. That the years of her life would be utterly spent, but it had been such bliss to feel the warm arms surround her even at the darkest hours and she knew she was safe in the love Aragorn gave to her.

But what her father had not foreseen and what Arwen knew was that there would be no years for her to wander the woods. There would be hours, surely but no more days in which to weep for the passing of the elves, for the passing of her people.

She did not care when the wind chilled the tears that had stained her tears since Aragorn had died, weeks before. She could not stop weeping and nor could she keep her heart from soon to cease beating. She would soon join him but she knew she needed to say goodbye to the things in her life that had meant to her.

She sank down upon the floor beneath a golden tree. The leaves had started to fall when the last of the elves had finally sailed years before. And now the last of the elven kind had joined his kin across the sea, Legolas had left these shores.

But her thoughts only lingered on them briefly, for she would do it all again if it meant the happiness Aragorn had given her. She could remember like yesterday the farewell to her father, which had pained her greatly as she had, with the dimming vision of a mortal woman, seen the pain upon his features.

The deep blazing pain of being surrendered from a loved one till the ending of time. There were many times within her life that she had longed for the comfort of his embrace but not like she did now. To comfort her before she died. But there was no comfort for her now, no loving family to surround her in love, she was all alone. Alone as she had found herself on the night Aragorn died.

"_I called his name two times but he did not answer. He would never answer me at all. I remember the light dying in his eyes as he took my hand and kissed it before closing them. Then his breath fell silent as did his heart. When the pain came I thought I would surely die but my children needed me. How I can still remember their pleas when they knew I intended to leave them?"_

"_But they never knew the love we shared, Aragorn and I. I pray they may one day know this love and thrive in it, as I did every day of my life shared with my lord. Might they not make this final goodbye and be the one left behind to mourn, to see other's grief for a person they hardly knew and was only a comfort in tales long ended to them. While I knew him so well, when he was the only one who knew my worst pain." _

But Aragorn would never have imagined this pain, even before the time of the Ring came and he had to leave on the quest. The quest that ensured his future as it did hers. Arwen knew that the moment those silver eyes closed her life ended as well, for she could not live without him.

But life did move on as she quickly realized. Watching as the people mourned the old king, they cheered in the same hour for the new one. She was as proud as a mother could be but she could not rejoice as her people did. For there was no more cause to rejoice for with the ruling of king Eldarion there came an end to the ruling of Aragorn and Arwen.

As there was an end for her now. She could feel the numbness starting to spread and for a moment she wondered if even Valinor could have saved her from this fate. Could the blessed isle return her to her old immortality or would she forever linger in shadow?

No, she would prefer to choose the light instead, to make the choice to pass beyond the circles of the world and into the waiting arms of Aragorn, into the arms of the man she had given up her immortality to be with.

She frowned when another goodbye crossed her mind. Her goodbye to her brothers Elladan and Elrohir as they finally made their choice to follow their father over the sea. She could remember the sad expressions on their youthful faces and knew it pained them to see their sister would grow old. Not as quickly as other mortals but quick in their eyes, as once their father had seen his brother grown old and die and could do nothing to stop it.

But it was never a choice she regretted even when in the final years she began to realize the bitter aspects of mortality. Death would be a gift she would welcome, for it would take away to the pain and would only bring release.

She had never understood those who welcomed death for she had longed to live her life as she had done with Aragorn. But even as she begged him not to give into his desire to sleep, he had simply smiled weary and answered her she would know before the end.

Now she knew. The final goodbye had been hard but she knew she was ready. She was ready as she had been ready all her life as a mortal. As she had been doing as a mortal. The first goodbye to her mother as she sailed over the sea after she had been rescued from the tortured the orcs put her through. She never knew if her mother had been restored to the elf lady she had loved.

The second goodbye was to her father and grandmother but her pain meant nothing when she lived in such bliss with Aragorn. She became pregnant with Eldarion shortly after Elrond sailed and she wanted to tell him so badly she was carrying his first grandchild but she understood the pain it caused him to see his daughter a mortal woman.

She closed her eyes as a burning sensation took over her chest. She shook her head to clear her mind and focussed once more upon her memories. She remembered the last time her brothers had come to Gondor and had told her they intended to sail within the next summer.

They had blessed her by now adult children and while she said her goodbye to them in private she could not help but rush after her weeping when they went to walk out of the room. It was the last change she would ever get to look upon the faces she had known all her life and finally she caught them in her arms, holding them as she had when she was a small child and had become frightened at night because of a bad dream.

To see such anguish upon their faces seemed to much to her as her heart broke. Aragorn finally caught her and held her tightly while Elladan drew Elrohir away. It seemed like the youngest twin was fighting his own twin and she could see Elladan was close to weeping himself. The door had finally closed behind them and she collapsed in her king's arms, scarcely remembering the words of comfort whispered in her ear.

She smiled as her breathing seemed to slow. It would not be long now. She could already see the light.

"_Finally the moment is there and I have said goodbye to everybody but now it is time for me to say goodbye to the earth which had been my home for many millenniums now. I can see the light and I can feel his warmth and his love surrounding me. It will make the passing easier and while I take my last breath I whisper my goodbye and close my eyes."_

"Namarien." The only word Arwen Evenstar said as she finally passed from this world and into the waiting arms of her husband. The wind carried the word across the sea where a distraught family finally learned the sad news about their beloved daughter and sibling, she had passed utterly beyond their grasp and the final goodbye was the most painful of all.

The end

**Hope you liked it. Please review and tell me what you think.**


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